LIT 127: Introduction to Fiction
Home | Materials | Policies | Course Work | Schedule | Discussion Groups | Papers | Exams | WebBoard Directions | WebBoard

 

The Tell Tale Heart

 
 
 Directions:  In the appropriate conference on our class Web Board, discuss one or all of the following. 
  1. We know very little about the narrator of "Tell Tale Heart" - who he is, what her connection to the old man is - for that matter, whether the narrator is a he or she.  How did you view the narrator?  What details did you as the reader provide? 
  2. Like "A Cask of Amontillado," "TTH" is told from the point-of-view of an insane murderer. Consider the similarities and differences between the two narrators and the two stories.
  3. Like "Fall of the House of Usher," "TTH" involves a character claiming to have overly acute senses. How are Roderick Usher and the narrator of "TTH" similar and different? How are their maladies similar and different?
  4. Like "A Cask of Amontillado," "TTH" involves a murder with very little backstory.  Is this a weakness of Poe's writing, or a deliberate technique? Why might, in either story, he have chosen to leave the details so vague?
 

Home | Materials | Policies | Course Work | Schedule | Discussion Groups | Papers | Exams | WebBoard Directions | WebBoard